Bag



April 25, 1967 1.J. GREvlcs-a 3,315,877

BAG

Filed Sept. 1 4, 1965 United States Patent O 3,315,877 BAG John Joseph Grevich, Star Prairie, Wis., assignor to Douglrboy Industries, Inc., New Richmond, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Fired sept. 14, 1965, ser. No. 487,208 1 Claim. (Cl. 229-65) This invention relates to a reclosable bag and to the method of providing a bag with a reclosing feature.

An object of my invention is to provide a bag with a new and improved reclosable feature to keep the product in the bag fresh.

Another object of my invention is to provides a novel method of providing a bag with a simple and inexpensive reclosable feature.

A further object of my invention is to provide a bag with a novel closure for sealing the product in the bag to maintain product freshness and to facilitate reusing of a portion of the closure to provide reclosing of the bag after initial opening so as to again essentially seal the bag against air movement into the bag and thereby further maintain freshness of the product remaining after the initial opening.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and in which:

FIGS. 1-5 illustrates the successive steps in forming the closure of the bag with the reclosable feature.

FIG. 6 shows the bag reopened to obtain access to the product therein after the bag has been originally sealed closed.

FIG. 7 is a detail view of the bag closure in the posture of FIG. 5, but illustrating the rear side thereof.

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the upper portion of the bag closed in the manner illustrated in FIGS. and 7.

FIG. 9 is a greatly enlarged detail sectional view taken approximately at 9-9 as indicated in FIG. 8.

FIGS. l0 and 11 are detail views showing alternate steps in the Iprocedure of forming the bag closure and correspond generally to the steps previously illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

A typical bag is illustrated in the drawings and is shown in the various stages of being closed and reopened. The bag B may be constructed of paper or other sheet material and the bag may or may not have a liner of imperforate plastic material for improving the freshnessmaintaining ability of the bag. The bag B has a front wall 10 and a rear wall 11. The sides of the bag may be pleated as indicated at 12 so as to permit substantial expansion of the interior of the bag. The pleated sides 12 of the bag will expand to some extent as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 when a quantity of product, such as cookies, is placed in the bag.

The bag to be closed is carried through a number of stages of operation as illustrated substantially in FIGS. 1- and the bag B may be carried along between a pair of conveyor chains 13 and 14 which grip the front and rear walls of the bag for carrying the bag along to the various stages of the closing operation. The conveyor chains are illustrated only in FIG. l and is not illustrated in the partial view of FIGS. 2-5. In FIG. 2 the upper portion 15 of the bag B is illustrated folded downwardly, and several spots 16 of glue or adhesive have been applied to the sidewall 10 of the bag. Illustrated diagrammatically in connection with FIG. 2 is a folder 17 which may be a part of a machine accomplishing the folding function illustrated in F IG. 2.

In FIG. 3, the 'bag B has its upper portion 15 folded downwardly again, to turn the upper portion of the bag ICC inwardly against the adhesive spots 16. This inner fold area 15a is pressed against the yadhesive spots 16 so as to be joined thereby to the bag sidewall 10 confronted thereby. This additional folding illustrated in FIG. 3 may be accomplished by a second folder 17a which is illustrated diagrammatically in FIG. 3 and may be associated with the machine performing the folding and closing functions.

It will be understood that the spots 16 of adhesive may also be placed on the bag sidewall 10 by a machine which senses the timing of movement of the -bag or senses the bag location. As the fold illustrated in FIG. 3 is com pleted, a deformable strip 18 is applied and affixed to and along the outer fold area 15b of the upper portion of the bag. The strip 18 contains a wire 19 encompassed by a pair of strips 20 of paper which are secured together in face-to-face relation as by adhesive or heat sealing so as to provide a sheath for the wire 19. The wire 19 is manually deformable, but will retain the deformed sha-pe until again fastened manually. Alternately, the ,reclosing strip may be formed with the wire confined in an extruded thermoplastic sheath for heat sealing to the bag. The deformable strip 18 is drawn from a supply roll 18a of the material. One side of the strip 18 may be coated with thermoplastic material, 0r the strip may have adhesive applied thereto so as to be adapted to be atlixed to the outer fold area 15b of the bag. A heater bar, typical of heat sealing equipment, may be used for aixing the strip 18 to the folded portion of the bag by heat scaling. It will be noted that at the leading end portion 18 of the strip it extends beyond the side of the bag, and likewise the trailing end 18 is severed from the supply roll 18a at a location spaced from the other side of the bag B. The ends 18 and 18 of the strip are then folded around the ends of the folded upper portion 15 of the bag as illustrated in FIG. 5 as to cooperate with the adhesive in joining and securing the folded portion of the bag against the bag sidewall 10.

The closure of the 'bag thus formed is additionally illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8 and 9.

When the folded upper portion 15 of the lbag is lifted upwardly and the end portions lof the strip 18 are straightened out, the inner fold area 15a or the adhesive 16 will release so as to permit opening the bag to the condition illustrated in FIG. 6 so that the contents of the bag or the product contained therein may be removed or partially removed.

By merely folding the upper portion of the bag downwardly again, and again folding the ends of the strip 18 around the upper folded portion of the bag, the bag may be very easily reclosed for maintaining freshness of the product remaining in the bag. During the reclosing, the adhesive need not function again because the deformable strip 18 will hold the folded upper portion of the bag in folded condition so as to restrict movement of air into or out of the interior of the bag.

A slightly modified form of the closure is illustrated in FIGS. 10 and 1l wherein the bag B and particularly its upper Iportion 15 is folded through one more turn and illustrated in FIGS. 1-5 and 9. This provides some advantage desired in certain packaging operations for providing a more thorough sealing of the bag during the initial closing and subsequent reclosing thereof. The deformable strip is again applied and utilized in the same fashion previously described.

It will be seen that I have provided a new and improved closure for a bag which is readily and easily applicable to the bag and which serves to provide a simple and inexpensive reclosing feature of the bag with a minimum of expense and with the reclosing feature cooperating to improve the original closure of the bag.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the various parts without departing from the scope of my invention.

I claim:

A reclosable bag for maintaining product freshness,

-comprising a bag type receptacle constructed of sheet material and having front and rear walls with upper portions lying substantially against each other, said upper portions being twice successively folded back upon themselves and downwardly to dene a multiple thickness closure portion having an inner fold area confronting the outer side of one of said walls and also having an outer fold area facing outwardly, the bag thereby being closed to maintain freshness of product,

a quantity of adhesive between and joining said inner fold area and the outer side of said one wall,

and a deformable strip capable of retaining a predetermined shape and applied to said outer fold area of the bag, the ends of said strip being bent back upon themselves and around said folded upper portions and said bag walls to cooperate with said adhesive in retaining said upper portion in folded condition and against the outer side of said one wall, said strip also functioning to hold the upper portion of the bag closed and downwardly folded after the bag is initially opened to thereby maintain freshness of product.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,071,745 2/ 1937 Higginbottom 229-62 2,429,505 10/1947 Ashman 229-62 3,024,962 3/ 1962 Meister 229--62 3,212,698 10/1965 Balcom 229-62 FOREIGN PATENTS 531,853 9/1954 Belgium.

974,419 9/ 1950 France.

815,321 10/1951 Germany.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

DAVID M. BOCKENEK, Examiner. 

